Dell Inspiron One 2330 No POST unless RAM is removed/reinserted

pistol_sam

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Jan 9, 2018
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I have a problem with my Dell Inspiron One 2330. My brother sent me this all-in-one device with a "black screen" issue. I powered it on and it seems the OS won't load. It was an error on my part to just hastily install Windows 10 on it via usb, deleted the partitions, and installed the OS on the remaining one. All was fine, I upgraded the BIOS, it went well, at some point the screen went black, probably because of the auto update by Win 10. To make the story short, I am now faced with 2 problems. First, the dell all-in-one, won't POST after a shutdown, it just powers on and off, fans on and off, every 4-5 second intervals, no beeps, just the power led light (white, blinking every 4 sec). The second problem is that upgrading to Intel HD driver gives a black screen, or after installing a driver that needs restart, at times the screen turns black, although windows is still running normally. It boots properly, after I remove a RAM (or after reinserting it again), and screen works fine if I disable Intel HD or if I just use the basic Microsoft Display Driver, though occasionally I still encounter a few "black screens". I downgraded to Windows 8.1 OEM to better control updates. Problem still persists, I have to remove a RAM (or reinsert) each time, for the all-in-one pc to boot properly. Diagnostics are all good. I upgraded or downgraded the BIOS to no avail. I checked on things that might cause a short, found nothing. Notables are: I can't install Intel AMT HECI drivers provided by Dell for the product. I get an error 8193 Intel (R) ME cannot locate device driver after a finished BIOS update via USB dos. If I reset (jumper) the BIOS (with RAM removal), the buttons on the side of the monitor work and displays options (vga, hdmi input) on the screen, normally it doesn't show options when I am on Win 8.1 desktop. My guess is that, it is akin to a BIOS corruption, like something is preventing communication before it all starts, since it can't find the Intel ME drivers. I don't know anymore. Help. P.S., I disabled hibernation, because if it sleeps, it will result in an unwakable black screen.
 
Solution


Whatever you find, I hope the fix will be a cheap and easy one! If it's not the RAM, I would suspect the motherboard next based on your description. I'm not 100% sure, but I think there's supposed to be a thermal pad or paste between the Intel chipset and the heat spreader beneath the motherboard. If that's dried up (or even missing), then that would allow the chipset to heat up and cause problems including a black screen. I've seen that...

pistol_sam

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Jan 9, 2018
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510


I haven't tried using other RAM. I'll give it a try, though I tried switching the 2 RAM modules, and same problem persists.
 

VIVO-US

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Feb 1, 2017
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Whatever you find, I hope the fix will be a cheap and easy one! If it's not the RAM, I would suspect the motherboard next based on your description. I'm not 100% sure, but I think there's supposed to be a thermal pad or paste between the Intel chipset and the heat spreader beneath the motherboard. If that's dried up (or even missing), then that would allow the chipset to heat up and cause problems including a black screen. I've seen that happen in way too many cheap laptops.
 
Solution

pistol_sam

Prominent
Jan 9, 2018
3
0
510
I hope it is not the motherboard, though I am suspecting it could be the one. It is an all-in-one pc, with the videocard embedded on the motherboard, which could be failing.